River Kilometer Index (RKI) Stream Trace files

Metadata Summary

Originator

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

Abstract

The River Kilometer Index (RKI) Stream Trace Files are a set of arc covers representing centerlines of stream traces for Minnesota rivers. Digitizing was done by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in 1980-81. The base maps for the project were USGS 1:24,000 quadrangle maps where they were available, and 1:62,500 maps where the 1:24,000's had not been completed. Digitizing was done in PIOS, the ESRI predecessor to Arc/INFO. Before beginning this project, DNR obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency digital river trace files of major rivers which had been automated by an EPA contractor in an early attempt to build a REACH file. DNR used these base files, dating from the mid-1970's, then digitized in any tributaries appearing on the 1:24,000 or 1:62,500 base maps which were not on the EPA files. LMIC converted the files from their original PIOS format into ARC/INFO format in 1984.

Stream traces are stored in coverages by DNR major watershed (corresponding to USGS 8-digit HUC codes). A secondary coverage stores only the trace of the major river in each major watershed.

A companion set of files - the RKI Mile Point files, stores mile points for each stream trace.

Matches content of USGS 1:24,000 and 1:62,500 quad maps available at the time the project was completed. (1890-81)

Access Constraints

None

Use Constraints

Use should be consistent with the scale of origin and the capture methods of the dataset, as reported in the Data Quality section.

1. Rivers are not all connected (for instance, a river flowing into another river at the point where the receiving river widens into a lake). Therefore, the file cannot be used for network applications without further processing.

2. Digitization of the major river traces is coarse, reflecting the early date of the data preparation (mid-1970's). The digitization of tributary rivers more closely matches the linework on the base maps.

Distributor Organization

Minnesota Land Management Information Center (LMIC)

Ordering Instructions

RKI river mile and milepoint data are now downloadable from the LMIC ftp site as a zipfile (rki_all.zip). Data are arc export files organized by DNR Major Watersheds. ArcExport files and metadata are included. Also included in the zipfile is 'mnrivers' - a subset of major rivers of the state from RKI (stream traces only).

Online Linkage

Click here to download data. (See Ordering Instructions above for details.) By clicking here, you agree to the notice in "Distribution Liability" in Section 6 of this metadata.

The River Kilometer Index (RKI) Stream Trace Files are a set of arc covers representing centerlines of stream traces for Minnesota rivers. Digitizing was done by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in 1980-81. The base maps for the project were USGS 1:24,000 quadrangle maps where they were available, and 1:62,500 maps where the 1:24,000's had not been completed. Digitizing was done in PIOS, the ESRI predecessor to Arc/INFO. Before beginning this project, DNR obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency digital river trace files of major rivers which had been automated by an EPA contractor in an early attempt to build a REACH file. DNR used these base files, dating from the mid-1970's, then digitized in any tributaries appearing on the 1:24,000 or 1:62,500 base maps which were not on the EPA files. LMIC converted the files from their original PIOS format into ARC/INFO format in 1984.

Stream traces are stored in coverages by DNR major watershed (corresponding to USGS 8-digit HUC codes). A secondary coverage stores only the trace of the major river in each major watershed.

A companion set of files - the RKI Mile Point files, stores mile points for each stream trace.

Purpose

The purpose of the RKI Stream Trace and Mile Point data sets was to provide a river mapping and indexing system for the state of Minnesota.

Time Period of Content Date

1981

Currentness Reference

Matches content of USGS 1:24,000 and 1:62,500 quad maps available at the time the project was completed. (1890-81)

Use should be consistent with the scale of origin and the capture methods of the dataset, as reported in the Data Quality section.

1. Rivers are not all connected (for instance, a river flowing into another river at the point where the receiving river widens into a lake). Therefore, the file cannot be used for network applications without further processing.

2. Digitization of the major river traces is coarse, reflecting the early date of the data preparation (mid-1970's). The digitization of tributary rivers more closely matches the linework on the base maps.

A related table, PWI.RIVERS, was created by LMIC to provide a cross-reference to the river name, as shown on the DNR Protected Waters Inventory maps and the DNR official text list of Protected Streams.

There are gaps in the file (for instance, where a river flows into another river through a lake), which means that the file cannot be used as is for network applications. However, because it represents stream centerlines, the RKI file is the only existing Minnesota river file set suitable for river length measurement.

Completeness

Covers rivers on the USGS 1:62,500 or 1:24,000-scale base map, as available in 1980-81.

Horizontal Positional Accuracy

Report is qualitative only.

A comparison by LMIC with other stream files available by 1990 (notably the USGS 1:100,000 DLG Hydrography layer) showed that, while the RKI file contained every stream tributary appearing on the USGS base maps, the representations of the streams dating back to the EPA work in the mid-1970's were crude and did not capture all the sinuosity of the river as represented on the base map. (The digitizing of the smaller rivers by DNR did capture the linework as it appeared on the map.)

The DLG file captures the rivers as polygons where they appear as such on the map, and better captures stream sinuosity, but does not capture all rivers on the 1:24,000 map series, since a river length cutoff was applied in creating the file.

Lineage

(1980-81) Original file creation.

DNR obtained from USEPA a set of river trace files for major rivers. These files had been created in the mid-1970s. Further processing of these files was done on a major watershed basis. The GIS system used was the Polygon Information Overlay System (PIOS), the ESRI predecessor to Arc/INFO. DNR staff digitized the remaining river traces on each 1:24,000 or 1:62,500 map sheet, and appended the information onto the EPA data. River kilometers, and later miles, were calculated by the system.

(1984) PIOS/ARC Conversion.

LMIC converted the files from PIOS to ARC/INFO. River mile points were calculated for each river trace and written to a separate point file. Because the river traces were not all connected, this was done by a specially-written program not part of the Arc/INFO tool set. Files at this time were UTM, Zone 15, NAD27, single precision, with a Y-shift of -4,700,000.

(1986) Names file creation.

LMIC built the PWI.RIVERS file as a cross-reference table between the river ID on the arc covers and the river name, as represented on the DNR Protected Streams list.

Rivers covers represent ALL rivers in a major watershed. They are named RIVERXX, where XX is the DNR major watershed number.

Major rivers covers represent ONLY the major river flowing through each major watershed (e.g., for DNR major watershed #29, the Cottonwood River Basin, the major rivers file would represent only the Cottonwood trace.) Major rivers coverages are named MRIVXX', where XX' is the DNR major watershed number. Major rivers which flow through more than one major watershed are named for the major watershed in which they originate. For example, the Mississippi is MRIV07, the Minnesota is MRIV22, the St. Croix is MRIV34, the Red is MRIV54, and the Rainy is MRIV72. River traces for these five large rivers in Minnesota have been pulled out into separate coverages and are NOT in the corresponding RIVERXX covers.

DATA FIELD DEFINITIONS FNODE# -- Standard ARC field - from-node number of the arc. TNODE# -- Standard ARC field - to-node number of the arc. LPOLY# -- Standard ARC field - left polygon number. RPOLY# -- Standard ARC field - right polygon number. LENGTH -- Standard ARC field - arc length in meters. RIVERXX# -- Standard ARC field - internal identifier for the arc. RIVERXX-ID -- Standard ARC field - arc identifier - can be assigned by the user. MN_STREAM_CODE -- River Number - A combination of the DNR Major watershed number for the river and the river number assigned to the river throughout its length. The river number portion of this code should be the same as the RIVERXX- ID.

REDEFINED DATA FIELD DEFINITIONS MAJOR_WSHED_CODE -- The DNR 2-digit major watershed number for the ARC. Code file is NAMES_81 or MAJOR23.TXT RIVER_NUMBER -- The river number for the arc - should be the same as the RIVERXX-ID.

Format is identical in the MRIVxx coverages.

Note: In associated tables of earlier vintage, MN_STREAM_CODE may be stored asRINDEX_CODE. RINDEX_CODE a 9-digit code made up of RINDEX-MAJOR (major watershed number) + RINDEXID (river arc ID on original file).

INFORMATION FOR RELATED TABLE, PWI.RIVERS

The file, PWI.RIVERS was created by LMIC in 1986-1987 to provide a cross-reference between the arc identifiers on the River Kilometer Index file and the river names, as identified on the DNR Protected Waters Inventory list for streams. Information for this file came from a DNR text list of Protected Waters/Streams. LMIC reformatted this list into INFO, and, using the DNR PWI maps to identify streams, added the ARC ID's to the file. Information on the PWI.RIVERS file is by county, as the DNR PWI list was county-based. For each occurence of the river on a county PWI map, a new record was created on PWI.RIVERS. Therefore long rivers may have several entries on the file, but they should have the same ID throughout.

COUNTY -- The county in which the river segment is found. Code file is CTY-TEXT MAJOR -- The DNR major watershed in which the river segment is found. (This field is generally not filled in) Code file is NAMES_81 or MAJOR23.TXT PROB -- Problem Code. Codes are: ND, NF, NI, PD, WD, WL RIV.NAME -- River Name, from DNR Stream Protected Inventory List. FDESCRIPT -- From Basin (rarely filled in) FKILOS -- River kilometer starting point within the county. FSECTION -- Public Land Survey starting section within the county. FTOWN -- Public Land Survey starting township within the county. FRANG -- Public Land Survey starting range within the county. FLITERAL -- Public Land Survey starting range direction within the county. TDESCRIPT -- To Basin (rarely filled in) TKILOS -- River kilometer ending point within the county. TSECTIO -- Public Land Survey ending section within the county. TTOWN -- Public Land Survey ending township within the county. TRANG -- Public Land Survey ending range within the county. TLITERAL -- Public Land Survey ending range direction within the county. ORIG.SEQ -- Original sequence number. Used by LMIC for internal purposes. ARC-ID -- Primary ARC identifier within the watershed file. This field corresponds with the RIVER_NUMBER on the RKI rivr trace files. CERTAIN -- A YES/NO flag indicating certainty about the ARC-ID. Is the ARC ID assigned the correct one? If only the ARC-ID field is filled in, then CERTAIN field is generally 'Y'. When there is also a value in the data field ARC-ID2, then the person doing the assigning was uncertain which was the correct arc, and the CERTAIN field generally contains 'N'. ARC-ID2 -- Secondary ARC identifier within the watershed file (if the person doing the coding was not sure which was the correct ARC-ID for the stream segment.)

REDEFINED DATA FIELDS FRNG -- Public Land Survey beginning range within the county. Redefined item combines FRANG and FLITERAL, i.e., it combines range and range direction into one field. TRNG -- Public Land Survey ending range within the county. Redefined item combines TRANG and TLITERAL, i.e., it combines range and range direction into one field.

Limitations: Although extensive effort has been made to produce error free and complete data, all geographic information has limitations due to the scale, resolution, date and interpretation of the original source materials. You should consult available data documentation (metadata) for these particular data to determine their limitations and the precision to which they depict distance, direction, location or other geographic characteristics. These data may be subject to periodic change without prior notification.

No Warranty: These data are provided as is, without any warranty whatsoever, including but not limited to any warranty as to their performance, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose.

Liability: The entire risk as to the results of the use of these data is assumed by the user. LMIC is not responsible for any interpretation or conclusions based on these data made by those who acquire or use it. LMIC shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, compensatory or consequential damages or third party claims resulting from the use of these data, even if LMIC has been advised of the possibility of such potential loss or damage. In States that do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, you may not use these data.

Redistribution Conditions: In obtaining these data from LMIC, it is understood that you and/or your organization have the right to use them for any internal purpose. If you modify them, you should document those changes in a metadata record that should accompany all redistributed data. If you transmit or provide these data in any form to another user, the data MUST be accompanied by a copy of this disclaimer and all documentation provided with the original data set including the full metadata record.

Data Delivered on Electronic Media: If these data have been requested from LMIC on magnetic media, CD-ROM or any other physical media, LMIC will deliver this product in the computer-readable format agreed upon with the requestor. LMIC will re-issue these data if they are determined unreadable by correctly adjusted computer input devices, or when the medium is delivered in a damaged condition. Requests for re-issue of this digital data product must be made within 30 days of the date shipped from LMIC.

Transfer Format Name

Arc Export

Transfer Format Version Number

7.1.1

Transfer Size

64 MB as zipfile

Ordering Instructions

RKI river mile and milepoint data are now downloadable from the LMIC ftp site as a zipfile (rki_all.zip). Data are arc export files organized by DNR Major Watersheds. ArcExport files and metadata are included. Also included in the zipfile is 'mnrivers' - a subset of major rivers of the state from RKI (stream traces only).

Online Linkage

Click here to download data. (See Ordering Instructions above for details.) By clicking here, you agree to the notice in "Distribution Liability" above.